What’s up in Swakop?

As an educational opportunity and to experience other Namibian cultures, we spent September 22-26th in Swakopmund. Swakopmund is located on the Atlantic coast and has more visible signs of European influence than Windhoek. Also, for those of you who are up on your celebrity know-how, Swakopmund is also where Brangelina delivered their daughter, Shiloh.

In Swakopmund (also known as Swakop), the German influence is everywhere. Many people continue to speak German as a first or second language. The buildings are modeled in the German style and, to my good fortune, a fabulous schnitzel is easily found. Tourists from the States, Europe, and the rest of the globe abound in this city of 86,000 permanent residents.

We met with the mayor of Swakopmund to talk about trade and how the city is run.

We spent our time during the week hearing from a few different organizations, including the Export Processing Zone, the mayor of Swakopmund, a government Environmental agency, the Mondessa Youth Opportunities, and Rossing Foundation Masters Math

Me and a friend I met at the Masters Math program we visited. She taught me how to use the program.

program. As a group, we climbed Dune 7, which is a huge sand dune. I was amazed by how much sand there was both on the ground and in my socks. We also had quite a bit of free time.

Six out of seven of the Valpo students standing on top of Dune 7, which we climbed in Swakopmund.

On the weekend, we got to choose what to do. I chose to go quadbiking through the Namib Desert with a couple friends. I don’t know if they call it quadbiking because the bike (what people in the States would call an ATV) has four wheels or because it gives you a great quadriceps workout. We spend just over two hours speeding up hills, flying over cliffs, and trying to dig me out when I got stuck. For my first quadbiking/ATVing experience, I have to say it went pretty well!